Martin Luther vs. John Calvin

OUTLINE:
COMPARE AND CONTRAST the attitudes of Martin Luther and John Calvin toward political authority AND social order

SUMMARY: a. During the 15OOs, the Protestant Reformation took place. Reformers had new ideas of how the church should fit into the political and social systems of each region. Most started with a man named Martin Luther and got modified some by a man named John Calvin and went on from there. b. Those two men which had the same basic idea, reforming the church, differed on how to do so: who should political authority and how we should place people under them, the social order. c. Both Luther and Calvin believed in the reformation of the church. Neither of them wanted the pope to rule each region and desired for each region to have independence of what religion they wanted. (Later Peace of Augsburg 1555 solved that) Yet because Luther was accused of heresy by Emperor Charles V and would have been put to death, Prince Fredrick III helped him out; therefore he respected the monarchy and wanted to keep the monarchy as the political authority over the state. On the other hand, Calvin wanted the church and state to be one, having basically himself ruling over the state, as well as the chosen ‘elect’ rule. d. Under the political ruler, whether the church or the monarchies, Calvin and Luther each had a social order which they believed people should be placed. They each believed in a more equal society, in families especially. Yet Calvin believed that there was a set ‘elect’ that would be higher than all because they are God’s chosen people and they God is in control of how others are classed. Whereas Luther’s belief of the social order was in all being equal in Gods eyes yet people should still remained classed as some higher than others. He sympathized for the peasants but still was on the princes’ side in the Peasants Revolt. So the social orders were very different in the two religions. e. While...